The Rock is probably the hardest course I've run on, but also the most unique. I think both of those traits are what Bob Timmons was looking for when he created it. It is a true cross country course, which you don't see very often, and definitely challenges you physically and mentally. You simply have to know how to race at Rim Rock if you are going to have a good race there. It is really funny to see people go out fast there because you know that by the end of the race they aren't going to be at the front.

Rim Rock was one of those types of courses that killed me. Like Oklahoma State's course, there would be stretches of relatively flat ground and then stretches that were brutally hilly. I think the toughest spot during an 8k race is the hairpin turn around the bottom, remote part of the course that gets you headed back toward the pond and then up toward Billy Mills. At that point, you're starting to get really tired, it's quiet because no fans venture to that part of the course and it's typically in the wide open sun. I hated that part of the course.

With that said, it's probably the best all around cross country course I've run on, and probably the most honest. No joker is going to sneak by with an unusually good finish there. What percentage of runners in any given race commit themselves to an early death by running hard the first 400 meters, which of course are all uphill? 20 percent? 30 percent? I always ran that part slow and would invariably pass a number of sweaty runners who were huffing and puffing by the time I hit the 800-meter mark.

I never ran the course, but wish I could (just to go run it). The local high school team here (Chaparral, Parker, CO) has competed there a few times. Many of the kids that I used to coach tell me they really loved running there.

I was helping as a course marshall for the Big XII Championships @ Rim Rock a number of years ago. Cold, rainy, muddy day that was! When does KU host again?